


Give Up the Chase

by smilekidd



Category: S.W.A.T. (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 06:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30034527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smilekidd/pseuds/smilekidd
Summary: Chris comes back from working abroad in Paris for the TLI program and has finally realized and accepted that she's in love with Street. Willing to fully risk losing her spot on the team, she's ready to come clean about her feelings and give them the shot he's been fighting for years. The question is; are her and Jim on the same page?____"Maybe we should both just stop running," she tried.Jim shook his head. "I stopped running three months ago. You made it explicitly clear that you wanted nothing to do with me, so that's what I got accustomed to. You can't come back, after four months of absolutely nothing, and just decide that we can finally give us a shot just because you decided that you're ready. That's not how that works."
Relationships: Chris/Street - Relationship, Christina "Chris" Alonso/James "Jim" Street, Stris - Relationship, jim street & chris alonso
Comments: 14
Kudos: 24





	Give Up the Chase

**Author's Note:**

> The writer wheels started turning after episode 04x10, so here is one of the many ways I have pictured Chris and Street making up in my head. Hope you enjoy (:

It seemed as though Chris, Street, and Luca had fallen into old patterns, Chris thought as she pulled into the driveway. Recently she had been coming over a lot more often without an invitation. Despite the tension still reeling between her and Street, the three of them had been spending just as much time together as they did before things went south between her and Jim prior to her leaving for Paris.

She stepped out of the car and started making her way to their front door. As she got closer, she saw Luca walk out with his keys in his hand. "Oh, hey Chris!" He greeted.

"Hey Luca! Sorry I probably should have called," she started. "You heading out?" she asked, pointing to his car keys as he passed her.

"Don't worry about calling Chris, this house is basically just as much yours as it is ours at this point," Luca smiled. "I am heading out though, grabbing a bite with Tuana while Kelly's hanging out with her friends for the day. Street's home though!" He answered, body halfway into his car at this point.

Chris nodded. "Alright, I'll see you later then!" she responded with a quick wave. After watching a smiling Luca drive off, she puffed out her cheeks and let out a deep breath. Maybe she should just go home...

But, on the other hand, with Luca gone for a few hours, this might be the perfect opportunity for Chris to talk to Street without any interruptions. If she caught him here it'd be a lot harder for him to make up any excuses to escape the conversation. Deciding that this might be her best chance to really fix their friendship, Chris took out the spare key she had to their house and opened the door. 

Chris was greeted to an empty, silent living room, which made her assume Street was in his bedroom. Figuring he might pretend to be sleeping or something of the sort, she stayed quiet and made her way to his room. Taking a low, deep breath to calm her nerves, she knocked on his door. 

Chris had been over enough times for Jim to know the difference between her knocks and Luca's. So when that strong, yet gentle knock came at his door he knew it was her. But he wasn't going to let her know that he knew that, so he pretended he thought she was Luca. 

"What'd you forget this time, du- Oh hey, Chris," he said as he opened his door.

"Uh, hey," she hesitantly started before clearing her throat. "You have a sec?" she asked, silently pleading with her eyes for him to give her the time of day.

Knowing he couldn't justifiably say no this time, Street nodded and moved to the side. "Uh, yeah sure come on in," he invited as he wiped one hand along the back of his neck. The silence between them was overwhelming. Street took a seat at the edge of his bed looking at Chris standing awkwardly in front of him. He noticed her fidgeting with her fingers as she tried to find her words - a nervous habit of hers that he usually found adorable.

"I, uh," Chris nervously starts. "I know we haven't had the chance to really talk since I've been back. So I figured, with Luca gone for a bit, now might be a good time?"

Street nodded. "Sounds logical enough to me. What exactly do you want to talk about?" He wasn't trying to be petty by playing stupid, but he didn't feel like this was a conversation he needed to lead this time around. She ignored him, if she wanted to talk she could take the reigns for once.

Chris sighed as she shifted her body weight in slight defeat. He wasn't going to make this any easier for them was he? "Come on, Street," she softly pleaded as they locked eyes.

He sighed. "Guess it's time for _that_ talk, huh?" Chris nodded. "Well, there's clearly a lot to unpack here so where exactly do we start?"

"Well I guess the best place to start is by saying I'm sorry. We weren't on the best terms when I left and I didn't do much to make things better while I was gone." Chris cursed herself as she cleared the lump forming in her throat. Why, of all people, did it have to be Jim Street that made her this nervous?

"Regardless of whatever we've been through, and whatever we may go through in the future, you're my best friend. I mean that. And I know I'm not always the easiest to get along with." Street let out a chuckle in agreeance, earning an eyeroll from Chris before she continued. "I can be stubborn and I have an issue with pushing people away when I feel like they're getting too close. And, _God_ , you get close. But you've never given up on me, even after the times I said some pretty hurtful things to you that you didn't deserve." She paused as she looked him in the eye to see him watching her with his full, undivided attention.

Suddenly forgetting the well thought out apology she mentally prepared, Chris settled for a hail Mary. "I don't know, Jim, I guess I just want to apologize for everything. Especially, for leaving and possibly making you feel like I had given up on you - us - by being so distant."

"Distant? I don't know if I would call ignoring someone for four months being 'distant'. You completely ghosted me, Christina," Jim calmly stated.

_Christina. Ouch._ Alonso thought as she nodded and glanced down at her hands.

"You didn't want to be with me, fine I got that. I confessed my feelings to you at the worst possible time, I realized that too. But never once did I think we would just stop talking altogether because, as best friends, that has never been something we've done."

"I know," Chris lowly responded.

"Do you really know though, Chris?" Jim asked, his eyes darting from left to right as he searched her teary eyes. "Do you know what it felt like to text you every day for two weeks and get no response? Do you know how it felt to hear the guys spit out tidbits of conversations they had with you when I never got anything? They would ask me if I had any special intel because they assumed, since we were 'so' close, that you would have told me details you didn't tell them. And to save face, I had to make up jokes to avoid the question so things didn't look suspicious whenever you eventually came back."

Street could feel himself getting worked up, but their conversation had just started and he didn't want it to become an argument. He knew, with all of the feelings they never fully expressed to each other, this could have very easily turned into something much more intense.

"I'm sorry, Street. I am," Chris whispered. She didn't feel that any response other than an apology would suffice right now. "If I could redo those four months I would have done things completely differently. I was stupid and scared and you didn't deserve how I treated you at all. I didn't m-"

"I know," Street interrupted. "I know I didn't deserve it, and I know you didn't mean for things to turn out this way. But they did. Whether you intended to or not, you hurt me, Christina. Deeper than any dig you could have ever thrown at me about the 'pipe dream' I had about us being a thing." Chris mentally flinched as he quoted her. She had regretted that statement as soon as it came out at S.W.A.T headquarters. 

Jim continued before Chris could say anything. "But what's done is done," he shrugged. "We can't go back now. So what exactly do you want from this conversation?" He locked in on her sad, chocolatey eyes. The ball was fully in her court and, at this point, Street wasn't even fully sure he wanted play their game anymore.

"I want to fix it," she answered. "I want to fix us." 

Street sighed deeply as he crossed his arms nodded his head. "Which us? Are we talking as Chris and Street or Christina and Jim?"

"Both," she replied, chocolate meeting hazel as they made eye contact. She didn't miss his slight change in body language with her response. He hugged his arms closer to himself as he contemplated his answer.

"Well, Chris and Street always figure it out don't they? Eventually we'd push our feelings down far enough to get through the work days. We'll joke and laugh while we're on duty and have vague conversations that seem deep enough for us to pretend we're okay. We'll comfort each other when it's almost too late because no one really gets us the way we get each other. We'll see each other when the squad all gets together and pretend to be as close as we used to be." Chris bit her lip as she listened to him, slightly upset that that's how he saw the dynamic of their friendship. But she couldn't blame him, she thought. After that single kiss they shared things had never been the same.

"As for Christina and Jim," Street started, glancing to the side with a doubtful expression. "I mean, I don't know, Chris. Is there even a Christina and Jim anymore? Hell, was there even a Christina and Jim to being with?" he asked as he let out an incredulous laugh.

Chris squinted and cocked her head back a bit in disbelief. "There's always been a Christina and Jim, you know that. We both know that. If there wasn't we wouldn't be here right now."

"No, Chris. It's always been Jim _chasing_ Christina, never Jim _and_ Christina."

"That's not true," Alonso defended, furrowing her eyebrow.

"It is!" Street laughed. "We kissed one time and you regretted it so much-"

Chris interrupted, shaking her finger and her head. "I never regretted that kiss."

Street scoffed. "Well you must be a pretty damn good actress because you could've fooled me," he retorted. "Another example of you trying to completely shut me out of your life. The only difference then was that you physically had to see me every day so you couldn't escape me."

"That's not true!" she angrily repeated. She couldn't tell if she was getting emotional because of the frustration of their situation or because some of what he was saying was right.

"It is, Christina!" Jim raised his voice the slightest bit as he stood up. A yelling match seemed to be in their near future, but maybe if he yelled at her he'd get out everything he really needed to say. And maybe that's what she deserved.

"No it's not! I just - I just needed space to figure some things out," she tried. But her response only seemed to aggravate Jim more.

He took a few steps to the right, shaking his head and laughing. "You always need space Chris, that's exactly the point that I'm making!" he yelled as he locked eyes with her. "I get a little too close, you freak out and you run. I give you space even though I know for a fact you want me to chase you. But I wait it out until you've cooled down enough and I come right back. Every. Single. Time. It's always the same thing! You get scared, you run, I chase. That's how this goes, is it not?" 

Chris violently shook her head. "Don't put this all on me, Jim. You run too!" she spat back at him. "How many times have I broken my back to make sure you kept your job or just kept your damn head on straight?"

"Oh thank you, Christina," Street started with an sarcastic scoff. "Let me formally thank you now for making me the man I am today. Without you breaking your back for me all those times I'd be miserable right now."

"Don't be a dick. That's not what I'm saying!" Christina rolled her eyes and squinted. "I'm just making the point that you run away from your problems too!"

"Problems?!" Jim questioned with a bewildered laugh. "We're a 'problem' to you?" 

Immediately regretting her choice of words, Chris sucked her teeth and squinted as she went to defend herself. "No, that's not what I meant and you know it. I'm just saying-" he cut her off with an angry chuckle that irritated Chris more than it should have.

"Fine, whatever, I won't get caught up on technicalities. But you want to know the difference between you and me?" he asked.

"Humor me," she picked as she crossed her arms.

"I may run away from life, but you run away from me." Chris swallowed and stayed silent. Satisfied with her reaction, Jim continued. "You want to lead the race and all I'm ever expected to do is adjust to your speed. But what if I'm tired of running?"

Her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest and her angry expression immediately softened. "What's that supposed to mean?" she whispered.

"I'm tired of chasing you, Christina. That's what it means," he answered with a sad sigh. Reclaiming his position on the edge of his bed, Jim looked to his floor, his walls and anywhere that wasn't the devastated chocolate eyes he loved so much.

"Maybe we should both just stop running," she tried.

Jim shook his head. "I stopped running three months ago. You made it explicitly clear that you wanted nothing to do with me, so that's what I got accustomed to. You can't come back, after four months of absolutely nothing, and just decide that we can finally give us a shot just because you decided that you're ready. That's not how that works."

"God damn it, Street, that's not what I'm doing!" Chris snapped. "You think that just because you see things one way then that's exactly how they are. Have you ever even tried to see my side?"

"All I'm ever forced to do is see it from your side, what are you talking about?! Everything has always been on your terms Christina!"

The stubborn love birds were too engulfed in their own argument that they hadn't heard Luca re-enter the house much earlier than anticipated. Out of respect he thought about going back to the car and waiting out whatever storm was brewing in Street's bedroom. But when he heard Chris's voice he felt a the slightest urge to eavesdrop. He swore he wasn't trying to be nosey, but he had noticed a weird shift in the two of them ever since she returned. At first he chalked it up to Street being slightly jealous that he lost the TLI competition and was still trying to be a good sport about it. But, after walking into the screaming match going on inside his house, it was clear to him that there was so much more to the story.

"They aren't my terms, Street! They're S.W.A.T's terms! We can't be together and be on the same team! Do you seriously think I would fight what we have this hard if I could be with you without risking our jobs?" she questioned incredulously. "Do you think I wanted to be in the literal romance capital of the world and be reminded every day that I couldn't share the experience with you? If I talked to you I would've wanted to come home to you every day. Which, fun fact, is something I can't do when I'm in Paris and you're here!"

"For fuck's sake, James. To claim to know me so well, I never thought I would have to spell it out for you," Chris started as she pinched her nose. "You'd have to be blind to not see that I love you - that I have loved you for years now. So no, it didn't take me four months in a foreign country to realize that. It took me four months in a foreign country to realize that I was ready and willing to change my position in S.W.A.T if that meant I could be with you."

Street's eyes softened as he listened to her, completely taken aback by her confession. "What?" he questioned in a low voice as he stood up. Surely he'd heard that last part wrong.

Chris was silent for a moment as it hit her that she had just let all of that out. She didn't intend for the message to come out that way. She didn't have the plan to express her feelings for him in their entirety, but they already left her mouth so she couldn't take them back. All she could do now was nod as he looked at her.

Street's entire being had softened. He waited so long for Chris to simply admit out loud that she found him attractive. Hearing her tell him she loved him was more than he could've ever imagined. And, with the swelling it caused in his heart, he had decided that it was worth waiting a lifetime for. She was willing to back down from her position on 20-David for him? He knew what their job, and more importantly their team, meant to her. So he knew how long she must have battled with herself before coming to that conclusion.

"Chris," he started as he walked toward her. He never broke eye contact as he moved close enough to grab her hands. "I don't think my feelings for you have ever been a secret," he chuckled. "And I can't even begin to tell you how it feels to hear you tell me you love me. But I would never ask you to change your position for me."

Christina shrugged. "I wouldn't be changing it for me, I'd be changing it for us," she started as she looked up at him. "I know you'd never ask me to leave 20-David, but I also know how much you worked your ass off to get back on this team. I would never want you to give up on everything you worked so hard for."

Street softly smiled. "You worked your ass off to get on this team too, Christina. I imagine, as a woman, you most likely had to work even harder than I did for your spot and I would never in a million years be okay with you throwing that away for me."

"Well it's either one of us leaves or we love each other and continue to play this stupid game of pretending we don't so we don't break the rules of our job by being together," Chris voiced. 

"We do have the option of holding off on telling anyone until we get a little time together under our belts. What if we decide we love each other but are better as friends? Then one of us would have left the team for no reason," Street offered.

"And if we get figured out before we're ready to say something?" Chris asked with a raised eyebrow.

Street shrugged. "Then we say everything was new and we wanted to make sure we were serious about our decision before causing a shift in the team dynamic," he answered.

Chris let out a short laugh. "Looks like you've thought of everything," she spoke as she dropped their hands to wrap hers around his torso. Street relocated his hands to hold the sides of her face.

"I may or may not have thought about this day a few times since you turned me down in the kitchen when I first started at S.W.A.T," he joked, earning a smile from Christina. "Well, since I'm officially making you mine now, does that mean I can kiss you without you running away from me?"

Chris rolled her eyes and pulled away ever so slightly. "You would've done better if you had just kissed me without making that stupid joke," she stated with slight annoyance.

Jim smiled before letting out an, "Oh hush," and bringing his lips to hers. They kissed softly for a few moments, taking it all in. Chris smiled into the kiss, bringing her hands up to rest on his wrists as he held her face in his hands. 

Luca took note of the silence now coming from Street's bedroom and smiled as he came to the conclusion that his two best friends had finally figured things out. It was tough for Luca to watch them love each other and not do anything about it for the sake of their jobs. Not wanting to let them know he was in on their little secret, he grabbed what he ran back in the house for and left as quietly as he could. As he walked to his car he chuckled to himself, wondering how long Chris and Street would be able to keep their relationship hidden. With how obvious those two were about their feelings for each other, he'd be surprised if Hondo, Deac, and Tan didn't figure it out within the next week.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking of leaving this as a one-shot, but I do have ideas for a full story if you'd like to see more! Let me know in the comments if you think it'd be better as a one-shot or if I should keep it going!


End file.
